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The Heritage Interest of the Cretaceous Amber Outcrops in the Iberian Peninsula, and Their Management and Protection

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Abstract

All the amber outcrops of the Iberian Peninsula are Lower Cretaceous in age and, in the case of Spain, some of them have provided important arthropod specimens preserved as bioinclusions. These Spanish localities are rich in fossil taxa of phylogenetic relevance and evidence of both paleoecological interactions and paleobehaviors are also abundant. Despite their high heritage interest, the actions conducted to their protection and management have been very unequal. In some cases, only the generic laws of national or autonomous scopes protect this heritage. In this paper, the state of the art of the Iberian Peninsula amber outcrops and a review of the major Cretaceous amber outcrops worldwide for comparison are presented. That comparison shows, in general, that the best protection, both legal and physical, occurs in Spain and that the case of Portugal is very different. In addition, some actions aimed at a more effective protection and management of the amber outcrops in Spain and Portugal are proposed, for example the proposal to consider the San Just outcrop, located in the Aragonese Community, under a protection designation as is the so called Bien de Interés Cultural.

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Acknowledgements

Authors wish to thank the information on amber outcrops and protective legislation provided of their respective countries to: Dr. Dany Azar, Dr. David Grimaldi, Dr. Ryan McKellar, Dr. André Nel, Dr. George Poinar, Dr. Alex Rasnitsyn and Dr. Artur Sá. Thanks are due to Dr. Luis Carcavilla (IGME) and Juan Carlos García (DGA) for providing valuable data on legal protection of the Spanish paleontological heritage, to Carolina Martínez Jaraiz and Eva Rodrigo for their help. This study is a contribution to projects AMBERIA (CGL2014-52163) and CRE (CGL2017-84419) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Museo Geominero, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, C/ Ríos Rosas, 23, 28003, Madrid, Spain

    A. Rodrigo, E. Peñalver & E. Barrón

  2. Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Álava-Arabako Natur Zienzien Museoa, C/ Siervas de Jesús, 24, 01001, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

    R. López del Valle

  3. Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà and Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Facultat de Geologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    X. Delclòs

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  1. A. Rodrigo
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  2. E. Peñalver
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  3. R. López del Valle
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  4. E. Barrón
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  5. X. Delclòs
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Correspondence to A. Rodrigo.

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Rodrigo, A., Peñalver, E., López del Valle, R. et al. The Heritage Interest of the Cretaceous Amber Outcrops in the Iberian Peninsula, and Their Management and Protection. Geoheritage 10, 511–523 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-018-0292-1

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